“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15
On what basis does the Christian call God, “Abba”? Isn’t God the Father of us all? Isn’t this what the world thinks He is?
The truth is that only believers – that is, those who trust solely in Jesus Christ – are sons of God. The presumption that we are all children of God is a dangerous falsehood. In fact, it’s a monstrous lie. To find out the truth we look, not to our deceptive hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) but to Scripture. What does it say?
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3).”
“Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” John 8:43-45
You see, were were not sons of God when we were outside of Christ. We were His enemies, in fact. Romans 5:10 reads “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” We were enemies, not friends…and certainly not family. But now, in Christ, we’ve been reconciled to Him by His death for us. This is the truth upon which the Apostle rests this section of Romans upon. What is this section about? It’s about our security. It’s about the assurance of our salvation. It’s about the fact that we are no longer enemies, but friends – and not just friends, but sons and daughters. Not that any of us should boast (Romans 3:27) for this has been done through faith.
But let’s pause and consider that this section is included in the first place. Why is that? It’s a long section. Romans 8 is a favorite of so many saints throughout the church age – and for good reason. But the fact that it’s included at all should quiet our unsettled and worried souls. God predestined us. He foreknew us. He planned our every detail. He called us by name. We all have that great reality in our past. Some of us know the exact day and hour. Others don’t know that but know of the entirety of that season of our rebirth. We all know the high romance of our calling. We all know of the drama of the soul when the Holy Spirit put His arm around our sobbing shoulders and dried our tears and sang that sweet, sweet song to in our ear. “You are forgiven, child. You were once lost, but now you are found. Dead, but now alive.”
The romance is so uneven, though. It’s the most High God, the holy One of Israel, supreme, perfect, the creator of the heavens and earth…and there’s us. Lowly. Sinful. Insecure. Full of pride. Full of fear. Lust and greed. Anger and jealousy. Yes, these sins are all in our past. They still exist in our present. And in love, through faith, not legalism, we put to death these deeds of the flesh in our future. But we know them and they alarm us partially because we have come to know the horrors of sin in a way that we never could before. Indeed, the soul that cries, “Abba! Father!” Is the one in whom the Spirit lives (John 16:8).
So, yes, the divine romance is Jesus Christ laying down His holy life for the sake of filthy sinners. To understand this is to start the life of sanctification. It sets in motion the mortification of sin, not through arid legalism. “A smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Isaiah 42:3).” A legalist, Ray Ortlund says, “wants to always be right because this makes them feel superior. A Christian wants always to be in Christ, because being in Christ means laying hold of life.” Isn’t this a wonderful truth? Mortification of sin isn’t “having faith in our faith” but dying to the flesh and having no confidence in it.
We aren’t saying, “there’s nothing I can do, therefore…I’m worthless.” No. God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). We stay dressed for action (Luke 12:35. We are on our guard; we stand firm in the faith; we are men of courage; we are strong (1 Corinthians 16:13). We are, indeed, more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) through Him who loves us. Our new life is in the Spirit and this means we are not losers, though we will have troubles. “In this world you will have tribulation.” Jesus states this flatly but without any sense of defeat. Instead, this follows: “But take heart, I have overcome the world.”
We don’t follow cleverly devised tales. We aren’t on a seven fold path. We aren’t “trying to do the best we can.” We aren’t “hoping things will work out for the best.” We aren’t trying to keep the tenets of a religion and hoping that at the end of the day our merits outweigh our failures. No. We walk in faith. We are dead to sin and raised to Christ.
Because of all this and the fact that it’s all so uneven – His righteousness for our sin, because He loved us, and it’s all unearned – we must be reminded in this way. Romans 8 is the logic of salvation. A saved person must come to Romans 8 because he/she has to logically wonder at it all. It’s a new life of faith, having died with Him, and it’s perfectly logical to wonder at it all when we see our failures over against His perfection.
How do we pray? How do we approach Him who scares us in His omniscience? But think, Christian! These things that you are now insecure about, didn’t He know them when He saved you? Why do you hide now from Him in your fear? That’s the spirit of slavery. He wrote this chapter so that we would see the truth. We have Romans 8 because He knows we need it! He gave us Romans 8 so that we’d know not only His sovereignty and righteousness but, above all, and not separate from these, His love.
Are you afraid, and I mean in dread fear of Him who died so that you might have life? Do you live a life of Christian mediocrity, not knowing how to break out of the currents of guilt and fear? Are you ashamed? Are you confused and not sure how to live for Christ? The answer is to know Him and the truth of your salvation. Your sin and failures aren’t the last word in your life anymore!
James Boice said, “If each of us knew how sinful we really are, we would not be so shocked or subdued by our failures. But most of us don’t know the depths of our own depravity. So we are shocked, particularly by a fall of serious moral sin or by our surprising ability to deny Jesus Christ.” You see, this isn’t a negative thing to say about ourselves in that for one, it’s the truth, and two, we have the promise of Christ at the bottom of it all.
One of the great tactics of the Devil, built upon the evil foundation of denying the evil in the first place, is that when we sin we’ve forfeited our place in Christ. This leads to the next terrible deception: if this is the case, we should just go on sinning or drift just drift along in a self-imposed purgatory. My friends, don’t let the Devil and the world define what you are! God’s truth is that, yes, we are remarkably sinful, full of deceit, greed, lust, envy, violence and self-worship. But this is the very truth that leads us to Him! And, moreover, He doesn’t stop there…no, He comes to us and restores us through Godly discipline and mercy upon mercy just as He did with Peter on the shore in John 21.
Peter had abandoned Him in His greatest hour of need. Why did this happen? Let’s consider it.
First, Peter was inflated with a great sense of confidence – not in Jesus, but himself. This is dangerous ground. The world always preaches its false gospel of self-confidence. “You can do it!” “You got this!” That’s the world’s mantra. In John 13:37 Peter says, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” These are the words of a man who thinks he’s relatively okay and there’s evidence to think that Peter didn’t agree with Jesus’ low evaluation of him. In Matthew 26:33 when Jesus spoke of the disciples being scattered and His crucifixion and resurrection to come, Peter persisted in verse 35, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” Luke tells us that Jesus told Peter He had prayed for him. Nevertheless, full of self-confidence, underestimating the power of sin, Peter ambled off to his shameful error. We need to remember his (Peter’s) words. “I don’t know the man…I don’t know what you’re talking about…I’m not His disciple!”
This was no minor sin, my friends. Peter was, for all intents and purposes, a broken man who had repudiated his calling. Ah…but in the darkest chambers of sin’s captivity, Christ comes and bursts our chains and sets us free! Then, he leads us out of that horrific labyrinth through which pride, anger, greed and lust has led us. We’re lost. We can’t find our way out or our way back to Him. We know we’ve failed Him. Maybe we’ve denied Him like Peter has, only in a different way. We’ve betrayed Him with our sin and we’re so very lost and ashamed. But there He is on the beach awaiting us. There He is. We abandoned Him in our weak hour but He has no weak hours. He comes again to save, to forgive, and to restore. This is your heritage now. This is your today. This is your tomorrow. He is your future.
He takes us by the hand. He leads us out of that place. We pass by them all, every dungeon room of sin, every broken promise, every missed opportunity, and we’re going up, up and up, forever, and we don’t see them – those awful passages that lead to hell. He shelters us from them. He never rubs our noses in our failures. In our walk with Him, before we are glorified in Heaven, we sometimes try and twist away, sure that this turn or that is where we need to go, but our Guide will not let loose our hand! This is the marvelous Christ! Our wonderful Redeemer! Our Rock! He breaks our chains and then leads us, step by small step, sweetly, lovingly, and completely to the Kingdom.
Have you broken away from Christ? Have you run down some ruinous path and found yourself in blackness and gloom? Cry out, friend, cry out, and Christ will come again and take you to Himself. “Cry, Abba!” He is indeed your Father in Christ. Your salvation isn’t impersonal. You are saved by the sovereign Creator who hates sin so much that it must be accounted for and, so, He did it Himself.
He’s no sentimental, sappy, deistic being. No! He’s the righteous and personal God of the universe that judged sin on the cross for you. He paid it all in full. For you. Run to Him as Savior and feel that roaring river of forgiveness flood your soul, sweep you up in its heavenly current and carry you for all your days.
Look at how He restored Peter. Peter, of course, denied him thrice, so Jesus, after the meal (see how He attends to His children’s needs!) reverses all that and gets him publicly to affirm Him three times. This is your heritage and your salvation. God doesn’t merely “forget” your sin as a business man might write off a loss. Rather, He pays for your rebellion Himself and then invites you to sit and eat and then, alas, He remakes your life in one glorious way after another. Those things that would destroy you, He takes and uses to teach you. Your salvation is from the Lord and since He is beautiful and perfect and true, so shall your salvation be too! You cannot be lost anymore than He can lie. This is the true path to “your best life now” – there’s no other road, nor avenue, except to Calvary and the repentance of sin.
No height, nor depth, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor anything else in all creation can separate you now from this love. It is yours in Christ. This is the great truth of adoption. This is the great truth that conquers fear.
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